The Good Life
by Emmy The Queen Salvatore
Summary: PART OF MY CANON COLLECTION. Ever wanted to look into the daily lives of Emma and Damon Salvatore from Blood Queen? Well look no further. A series of oneshots and multi-shots. Request only so PM me or write your request in a review!


_We're all hiding something. From the moment we wake, look in that mirror, all we do is spin our little lies. Suck in that gut, color that hair, twist off that wedding ring. And why not? What's the penalty? What are the consequences, really? 'I'm only human,' you say, and all is forgiven. But what if some cruel twist of fate makes you something else, something…other? Who forgives you then? Every human spends a night or two on the dark side and regrets it. But what if you only exist on the dark side? We just want the same things that you do: a chance at life, at love. We're not so different in that way._

Fifty or so years had passed since Emma and Damon had moved with Adria to Aix-en-Provence. Currently, they were living in Seattle. Emma and Damon had several successful businesses in the area. Adria was fully grown and had been for years. She'd even gone to college and was working as a nurse at the University of Washington Medical Center. As the sunlight sparkled off the Space Needle, Damon watched over Emma in their bed.

"What's with the sleep-peeping?" she moaned, rolling onto her stomach.

"I was not…sleep-peeping." They both laughed. "So tomorrow is someone's big day. Are you nervous?" Damon and Emma's 200th wedding anniversary was coming up and they'd decided to renew their vows. The ceremony was tomorrow. Emma turned to lay flat on her back and let out a breath. Damon laughed. "Yes, you are! You're nervous. Can I say something?"

"Uh-huh."

"I am kind of looking forward to it." They kissed.

"We need to sit down with Rebekah. Bishop's guard is giving her trouble." Emma sighed. "What a bore. I've lived for millennia and men are still pissing all over everything." She kissed his arm and moved up to his lips.

"Wait. Is that why cleanups were backed up last week?"

"I'm taking care of it."

"When? We haven't left this room."

"Women know how to multitask." A bell then rang.

"Is that the alarm?"

"This had better be good." Emma dressed and walked down the stairs. A vampire who worked for one of her businesses had come for an early visit. Meanwhile, across the city, Adria sleepily walked down the stairs of her loft and met her werewolf boyfriend, Derek, in the kitchen.

"You look like crap," said Adria, grabbing a bag of blood out of the refrigerator.

"Turns out psycho-ward werewolf and his sister like to party. And this you're going to love. They want to help me find a cure."

"Bastards," Adria muttered sarcastically.

"Oh, no, no, no. You'd turn them down too if you met them. They're pretty hateable."

"Okay."

"That's your judgey okay. Don't. Listen, in my defense, I would've hated them just as much before I was turned. Connor's that guy who got the new car at sixteen then crashed it, so his parents bought him a better one at 17. And she, I'm pretty sure she had a pony when she was a little girl right up until the day that she ate it!" Adria laughed. "And she's the one I like! They're rich, they're entitled."

"Yeah, they do sound hateable. How many people are there that know what you're going through and will help?"

"What would you do?"

"If accepting their offer will lead you to a cure, take it. Give yourself a break. We always say no to people like them because we're afraid of becoming them, but we don't have to. Saying yes gets you your life back. Say yes. I'm going to work. See ya later. Oh and don't forget to pick your suit for my mom's renewal tomorrow," Adria said before giving her man a kiss.

"Don't you think I should meet the woman first before I go to her renewal ceremony?"

"That's why she's coming over tonight for dinner. Bye!" Adria quickly left before Derek could protest.

"Damnit. Why do you have to be so much like your dad? Well, if they're coming over, I better talk to him about that thing." Derek pulled his cell out and called Damon.

As Emma gave a lecture to the vampire that had come to see her, Damon had taken Derek's call. A few minutes later, he walked into the green house, reading the newspaper, and saw Emma pruning lilies.

"The Vatican tweets. God, I hate this decade. I'm going to see Addy. You want to come?" he asked.

"I'm afraid I don't have time. I have a meeting with Nik. I'll see her tonight though."

"Okay." He kissed her forehead and grabbed his jacket. Just as he left, Nik walked through the door.

"Hey, Nik," Emma greeted.

"Hi," he said nervously.

"What's with you?"

"Normally you're the last person I'd come to with this sort of thing, but it involves you too."

"Is this about Katherine seducing Elijah into giving you her freedom?" Emma asked as she grabbed a series of lilies she'd clipped and arranged them in a vase.

"Sort of." He handed her a letter.

"Klaus," Emma read, "I hear you have refused Elijah's offer. My freedom. What a shame. While you boys sort out your problems, I have one last thing to offer you. I've caught wind that there is a witch in New Orleans named Jane-Anne Deveraux plotting a move against you and Emmalyne. Hunt her down. What she has to say will rattle you so deeply to your core that chasing little old me will be the least of your concerns. It's been a fun six centuries, Klaus, but I've worn down too many good heels running from you. Love and hate, Katerina."

"What do you think?"

"Well, I think we're going to New Orleans…after the renewal of course."

"I thought you'd say that."

"Marcel still runs that joint, right?"

"As far as I know."

"Don't tell him we're coming. I'd like to know what our child has really been up to." That's right. Marcel was sired through a combination of Emma and Klaus' blood. The first and only vampire that had been sired by a combination of vampire blood.

At Adria's apartment, Damon walked through the door and saw Derek pacing.

"You're here. Finally. I need to see Rebekah," said Derek.

"And what business do you have with Rebekah?"

"I got a visit last night. The cops are after Adria and I need vampires to help make all this go away in the way that you do. You know I don't like asking you for this, but…Addy killed her ex-boyfriend."

"What!"

"The guy attacked her. She didn't know her own strength, I guess."

"She never did have much restraint," Damon groaned.

"Damon, listen. I know you've done this a thousand times. You can't make this one thing go away just for me?"

"Yeah. Absolutely. Let's do that. I will appeal to Rebekah Mikaelson who isn't exactly fond of my daughter because she can't have any kids of her own. I'll say: Rebekah, my friend, Derek – oh, maybe you know him! He's the werewolf shacking up with my daughter. Well, Adria kind of mauled her ex," Damon rambled sarcastically.

"It wasn't just her. Purebreds were involved," Derek interrupted.

"Oh right. Purebred werewolves. Yeah! We gotta tell everyone about the purebreds! She just kind of brutally murdered her ex so if you could just sweep all this under the rug, that would be great."

"This is cute. What you're doing."

"THAT'S BECAUSE I'M CUTE!"

"Well, I'm freaking out! They're going to come and get a warrant and ask me questions. Where was I on the night of the 26th? Well, I was turning into a werewolf in my storage unit. Here's the key and here's a videotape of the whole thing! How else may I be of service!" Damon sighed.

"I'll take care of it. Just…don't do anything stupid." Damon left the apartment and tracked Adria's scent. As he walked down a street, a hand pulled him into the alley and pushed him against a wall, grabbing him by neck.

"Papa?" Adria asked.

"Hey, Addy. You're getting good at that." Adria released him and hugged him.

"Cops have been following me."

"I compelled them away. I have a contact in the department cleaning this mess up with Torrence. What happened?"

"I lost control of my powers."

"You haven't been practicing every day have you?"

"No. Don't tell mama?"

"Alright. It'll be our secret. But you have to promise me you'll go back to practicing. It's the only way to keep yourself under control."

"I promise. Everything's falling apart."

"Things move and shift and settle. That's what time is like."

"Nothing phases you, does it? Just never get scared."

"I wish that was true. Come on. I'll walk you to the hospital and we can have lunch later."

"Okay."

After Adria clocked into work, she started her rounds and was surprised when she noticed a vampire in one of her patient's rooms.

"Adria, good to see you."

"What are you doing here, Marcus?" Adria asked, looking at the vampire and the patient who was on life-support.

"Oh you know. The grind. He's a city councilman. Big muckety-muck! Bishop wants us to go after more people of influence, people of use."

"Well you can tell Bishop that the hospital is off-limits for recruiting."

"Tell you what. Share him with me and we'll take him to Bishop together."

"Leave him alone."

"Yeah. Sure." As Marcus went to bite the man, Adria threw him into a wall. "Bishop will be so disappointed. You and I need to set a few ground rules. There's an order now. There's Bishop and there's me. You will respect that."

"Don't worry. I know how many years it took you to get your nose firmly inserted up Bishop's ass. I agree. There is an order. There's you, Bishop, and then my family. So be careful who you decide to piss off!" Adria then threw him out of the room. An alarm blared and Adria rushed down to the ER.

"Help us hold him!" a nurse yelled.

"What's his story?" Adria asked.

"Dahmer out there attacked him. He was ripping out this guy's neck with his teeth. Poor guy stabbed him, but he's so tweaked on PCP, he just…"

"I need the priest! The priest!"

"Now he finds religion. Convenient." Adria walked to the patient who was in police custody. "Adria!"

"Mr. Sarin…Mr. Sarin, do you remember me? I'm Adria."

"You're the nurse."

"Yes, and I thought we said goodbye yesterday," Adria replied, remembering that Sarin had died from a terminal disease under her care.

"I screwed up. I screwed up!"

"I got this, Marie." Adria could smell the new vampirism on him.

"I can hear your heart."

"Who did this to you? Who turned you?"

"You're one of us. Help me!"

"Shhh!"

"I didn't see the knife. The cops were on me…"

"Shut up! Why were you asking for the priest? Did he do this to you?"

"Get me out!"

"How many are there?"

"Help me!"

"Sedative!" Sarin ripped through his restraints and escaped. "Damnit." Adria ran out of the ER and down to the hospital chapel. "Guess Sarin hasn't found you yet. How long have you been here?"

"Transferred from Portland a couple of days ago. I gotta say I miss the bustle of a parish."

"So you're a real priest."

"Ordained 10 years ago. Holy orders and everything. Nothing's changed for me. I'm still saving souls, just in a different way. Six years ago, I was dying of cancer, lymphoma. I was 34. In the hospital, as I looked into that…abyss, I suddenly knew. I knew there was no afterlife. God spoke to me like he never had before. Not in words, but in a true and sudden revelation. This life is all we get. It was so clear."

"And that wasn't enough for you?"

"Of course not! I was 34. I wanted to live. A doctor, a very smart and sympathetic woman, pitied me and offered me another option. Don't you see? God saved me. I asked him. I begged him to save me. And he did."

"So you think that God wanted you to become a vampire?"

"Well, if God made everything, then he made vampires too. Jesus himself rose from the dead."

"Are you saying that Jesus was a…"

"Get's you thinking doesn't it?"

"Look, I don't care what your perverted theology is. There is no turning in this hospital."

"Well, unfortunately, you don't get to make that call."

"What does that mean?"

"Bishop's the one who brought me here." Adria stormed out of the hospital and went to Bishop's place. Bishop was one of the top ranking vampires in Seattle. He was nowhere near the status of Adria's parents, but he ran the place in their stead and only went to them when he was having problems.

"I told you no recruiting at the hospital. And what do I find? Marcus and some priest turning people! You had to have Sarin because he is just so…what? What! What is he exactly!"

"Do you know that he died completely friendless? Childless, estranged from his parents. Lucky for him, he was exquisitely provided for by the family estate. Pharmaceuticals, apparently."

"So you turned him for the money. How noble."

"Who do you think pays for cleanup? The manpower, the body bags, the bribes to make people turn the other way. We are vampires. Not magicians."

"And turning a priest that's what? Just for laughs?"

"Nobody sells eternal life like a priest."

"Since when do you need to sell it? Anytime that you want someone, you just take him…or her."

"That's right. You missed the meeting. I'm only turning the willing now. The influential, the useful. People like Sarin and Father Gates. Being a vampire is almost perfect. The lying, the hiding, the stifling day job to cover our tracks is exhausting and tedious. When we have the numbers and we have the power, we won't have to hide. We can live right out in the open."

"You're not serious."

"Don't tell me you haven't thought about it."

"Bishop, keep a low profile, blend in, be invisible. This is the code we live by. You're defying the Order of the Originals by doing this."

"We lived that way because we had to. Soon we won't."

"What happened to you? I can't tell if you're delusional or just stupid."

"I could say the same about you. You're a vampire living with an animal. And a rabid one at that. Of course how could he tell you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Your wolf has a taste for vampires. Muzzle your dog, Adria, or we will." Adria left and Damon met her outside.

"We were supposed to meet for lunch."

"Sorry. I got caught up."

"With Bishop?"

"Vampire's fucking lost his mind."

"Language." Adria rolled her eyes. "What's going on?"

"Bishop's gone delusional. Wants to take over the human masses and expose us all. He's using Marcus and some priest to turn people at the hospital."

"Hospital's off limits. I made that clear."

"Well, I don't think he cares about the rules."

"Then we send him a message." A few minutes later, Damon walked into the hospital chapel.

"Anyone you'd like to pray for? You seem troubled. I'll pray for you," said Father Gates.

"You know what I am?"

"I do."

"I've been doing this for 200 years. You've been doing it for 6."

"Damnit and you still look 25. Sometimes I think: if I'd just turned a little earlier."

"I remember 6. You still remember the faces of the people that you've killed, most of them anyway, but they're just starting to fade now, aren't they? I have killed so many people that their faces are a blur. I used to think that I would go crazy trying remember, but when you can't, when there's too many, when it has been too long, that's when it gets scary."

"Or liberating."

"Church is a sanctuary, right? Does it mean the same for you now as before you turned?"

"When there's no one here, when it's empty…I can feel Him here with me."

"The woman that was here earlier. You really messed with the wrong person."

"And why's that?"

"She's my daughter." Father Gates paled. "I get it. You're completely unhinged. Why don't we rectify that?" Damon smirked mischievously and punched the pastor, throwing him to the floor. Later, the priest showed up at Bishop's. His fangs had been removed.

"Who did this?" Bishop demanded

"The father of that psychotic bitch," the pastor cried.

"Damon."

"Fix me."

"Shh. Damon can be an animal. I'm sorry. Living is the one flaw in our evolution. Fangs don't grow back."

"What am I gonna do? How am I going to eat?"

"I told you we are family. We'll take care of you." Bishop's guards then took Father Gates away. "That cocky bitch."

Later, Adria saw Derek in the halls of the hospital. She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the locker room.

"Please tell me you didn't kill a vampire."

"What are you talking about? No. Of course not."

"Don't lie to me, Derek."

"I got in a fight with one."

"What did he look like?"

"I don't know. He was flirting with my sister. Offered her a light."

"That's it? That's all he said?"

"He gave her some fake creeper name. Marcus, Michael, I don't know. I told him to get lost. He wouldn't take a hint."

"Marcus. Damnit, Derek."

"What?"

"You can't be a werewolf and tear up a vampire on his own turf. Do you know what you've brought on yourself, on us?"

"Adria."

"Just shut up! I need to fix this."

Later that afternoon, Derek called Damon.

"What? I fixed your cop problem," said Damon.

"It's Adria. She hasn't come home yet. I'm worried Bishop might have done something. They haven't been getting along for weeks."

"I think it's time Bishop was finally put down." A few minutes later, Damon arrived at the funeral home Bishop and Marcus worked out of.

"Welcome to Sapp & Sons. May I help you plan a special goodbye for your loved ones?" Marcus asked cheekily.

"What did you do with her?"

"You're gonna have to be more specific. I've had a busy day."

"Where is she!" Damon boomed.

"Boys, boys. You're both pretty. Damon, what a nice surprise," said Bishop.

"What did you do?"

"I know life is long but let's not waste our time with rhetorical questions."

"Where is my daughter, Bishop!"

"Papa!" Adria yelled, coming out of the hallway. She ran to him and hugged him. Damon took in her scent and kissed her forehead.

"You went too far this time," Damon hissed.

"Things have changed."

"Some things never change. Stay away from my daughter and her friends."

"Or what? You deserve this. You took everything from me. You took away my power and made me your dog."

"Let's not fool ourselves. You did this to yourself. You made yourself powerless." Damon pounced on Bishop. Marcus went to help, but Adria raised her hand. Taking over Marcus' mind, she forced him to stake himself.

"You're really pitiful, Bishop. I told you to change. It didn't have to be this way."

"It did." Damon removed Bishop's heart.

"Papa."

"Don't tell your mother about this." After calling Eliza to get the mess cleaned up, Damon met Emma at a flower shop near Adria's apartment.

"Hey you," he said.

"Hi. I thought I'd buy some flowers. Make a good impression."

"Get sunflowers. Those are her favorite." After paying for the bouquet, Emma and Damon walked down the main street leading to Adria's apartment.

"What will be eating?"

"Does it matter?"

"I'm just a bit overwhelmed. The renewal ceremony is tomorrow and instead of making preparations, I'm sitting down at a table with my daughter's dog."

"Okay. Listen. You need to remember this. Derek is not a dog. He's not a wolf. He's Addy's boyfriend and she cares about him."

"Okay. You're right." Damon knocked on the door and Derek answered.

"Derek, this is Emma. Emma, Derek."

"Please come inside." The couple entered the house and saw Adria putting a roast on the table. Dinner was a very silent affair until Derek broke the silence.

"So how did you two meet?"

"We met a long time ago. I lived with Damon's family for a time and I'd always act out to get his attention," said Emma.

"Yeah right," Damon scoffed.

"You have no idea how long I've loved you, do you? Katherine, my distant relative, and I have always been hot and cold. After a particular blow-up, she wanted to make peace. She gave me a black orchid. Very delicate flower. Well, I was determined to let it die out of some form of foolish protest so I refused to water it, denied it light, and yet, day after day, it thrived. And then I saw someone tending to it." Emma shot a meaningful look to Damon.

"You saw that?"

"I wasn't sure if you were trying to keep the peace for the sake of keeping the peace, or you were trying to protect me, but watching you care for that flower…Damon has always been the love of my very long life."

"And you are the love of mine," Damon replied.

"Wow, Dad. I never knew you were such a wuss," Adria smirked.

"Forgive me. I'm sharing too much," said Emma.

"You watch TV?" Derek asked.

"Mom despises tech—"

"Antiques Roadshow," Emma interrupted.

"Really? Antiques Roadshow? That is literally my favorite program, hands down. Rudy Franchi. Man is a god," said Derek.

"Husky, but knowledgeable."

"Bring her over more," said Derek to Adria. Adria looked at her father and saw the smile on his face. She knew then that Derek being accepted as a part of her life wouldn't ever be a problem. Not with parents like hers.


End file.
